Carol Mitchell: Many conflicts occur when wildlife is 'inconvenient'

Published: Sunday, February 20, 2000

Many people enjoy watching the Discovery channel or PBS to see shows about wildlife and nature.

We teach our children about the natural world and take them to feed the ducks, or have them help build a birdhouse. Many of us keep our backyard feeders and baths filled for our feathered friends, and encourage them even more with native plants.

We watch news reports about the reintroduction of the Mexican wolf to his rightful place in the Arizona wilderness and in Yellowstone. Many people professes to "love wildlife" after all, the diverse species enhance or environment. Or do they?

An acquaintance of ours built a large pond on their property and filled it with fish. Before long, a Great blue heron was visiting, attracted by the fish. Soon, a few mallards flew in to enjoy the watering place.

A raccoon was also dropping in, joining in the free fare swimming in the pond.Before long, the homeowner was outraged by building a nice visual attraction, his pond was also enticing to some "unwelcome" guests.

Like people, animals are opportunistic, and often they see an opportunity we don't even perceive. They take advantage of the situation by stealing fish, munching our fruit or nuts from the trees, eating the plants, or pilfering our pet's food.

Conflicts abound when our wild neighbors don't behave themselves. Shortly after last weeks' article on the Cowbirds at Target, several people called and e-mailed me to ask "What trees at Target? There are only two."

Indeed, all the rest of the trees across the front and south side of the store had been cut down earlier that week.

Perhaps it was coincidence, but conceivably the birds roosting there were inconvenient, given the mess they made on the pavement. The birds have now moved to trees across the street to other businesses.

During spring and summer when songbirds are nesting and raising young, we decide to prune our trees and shrubs, and spray our lawns with insecticides.

The Canada geese are "great" until they venture onto our lawn or flowerbed, and leave droppings behind. The same can be said for the Cedar waxwings and Robins they don't come to our feeders for seed, but they eat berries from our shrubs, and love to bathe and drink at the bird bath -then leave a mess both on the pavement, as well as in the water.

An opossum with young in her pouch is always looking for food. Recently, a homeowner trapped one particular female in a live trap, but failed to check the trap very often.

The frightened animal languished for about twenty-four hours without food and water. A trapped animal quickly becomes highly stressed, and thrashes around in the tiny compartment, causing numerous soft tissue injuries and abrasions.

Traps are only humane when they are used properly and checked frequently. Wild animals spend most of their lives looking for food; they don't have the luxury of visiting the neighborhood grocery store.

Burrowing owls coexisting with Prairie dogs are often poisoned, or drowned in their burrows by folks that don't find prairie dogs anything but a menace. We swing at the dive-bombing Mississippi kites, Blue jays and Mockingbirds when we venture too close to the offspring in a nearby nest, or on the ground.

Gray squirrels? No middle of the road here; people love them or hate them. Destructive? Yes. They live to torment us, and certainly are a growing concern here, as in many other communities. Grackles? Hoards of them, and more every year.

However, both species do deserve a tiny bit of credit for flourishing despite all of the roadblocks humankind has put up automobiles, poisons, traps and habitat loss.

The night marauders raccoons, opossums and skunks all looking for a meal in the uncovered trash can, while field mice go after our spilled birdseed. Sparrows block our gutters with their large nests.

The ideal situation results when we resolve a conflict between wild animals and people with both sides ending up satisfied. There are not always solutions, but many times, answers can be found. I am the first to admit there are many legitimate complaints and concerns.

Years ago before our waterfowl area was fenced in, a family of red foxes the Wildlife Center's neighbors to the south would regularly visit after-hours, and pick off an unsuspecting duckling, or weak adult. After all, they could dig under the fence, or simply put a paw through it.

My daughter asked what did I expect, when I had a virtual smorgasbord to offer them? It certainly made me think. I called Texas Parks and Wildlife in Lubbock, and the game warden suggested he could "shoot them" if they were that much of a problem. I was horrified ... I merely wanted them to leave our recovering birds alone. Finally, we added cement footer around the base of the fence, and covered the top of the enclosure, finally excluding entry by the foxes. We had achieved mutual coexistence!

I remember well the words of my friend a wildlife biologist: "Everyone loves wildlife until it is your own back yard!" Isn't that so true for many of us??

Carol Mitchell is the Executive Director of the South Plains Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, Inc. She can be reached at spwrc@hub.ofthe.net